Who does Emma look like?

Daddy?








Mommy?

Emma's 1st Christmas

I've neglected my blog lately. We've had a few things going on. Emma had a great Christmas, especially since she could sit up for it! I kept saying that I hoped she could sit up by Christmas. The weekend before she could only fall over, and then all of a sudden, she sat up. She was able to attempt to open some presents (mostly hitting and grabbing at the paper). She got way too much stuff, from toys to books to clothes. The clothes were not her favorite, but she has outgrown all the 9 month things we had for her, so she was in desperate need of 12 month clothes. I've posted a few pics. Considering how thrown off her schedule was the week of Christmas, I'd say she did pretty great. We got some good pictures too.

I've for some reason had the urge to totally clean house. It's like I'm nesting...7 months late. The garage and attic are packed full of stuff, but the house if pretty much cleaned out. I don't know if I'm trying to prepare for the crawling or what, but I cleaned out everything. I reorganized drawers, bookshelves and closets...now we just have to keep them clean. The hardest part. But now that I'm finished, I'm bored! I've already started thinking about Emma's 1st birthday in May, so I guess that's next. I did find some fun treats I'd like to try to make (snow pops and rainbow cake). I've also been trying to catch up on Emma's photo albums and scrapbooks. I'm a little behind.

We had to switch Emma to Nexium, which is harder to giver her than Prevacid. Our insurance also does not pay for it. We are not big fans of our insurance coverage. Fortunately in a couple of days, we can start using our FSA card again, which will help a little. So far, it's only been a week, so we'll have to wait a little longer to see how it works. I also gave her green beans for the first time yesterday! That's exciting to me, because I love green beans. She ate them all without making a face or gagging, so that's a good thing. After the pea debacle, I thought I'd have to buy grean beans, but I made my own and they worked very well. We're out of summer squash, so next up is butternut squash. I think she'll like it. I also have peaches and mango still to try.

Nick and I have been seriously discussing getting a new (to us) vehicle. We can't keep trying to shove everything into my car (you should see us driving down the road with a baby, all her junk and the two dogs crowded in). We're hoping to get an SUV, but the dreaded minivan is also a possibility. Nick always said he'd NEVER own a minivan...until he started looking at prices. So that will make for an interesting next few months. Nick is very indecisive, while I like to make decisions pretty quickly. Also, we're having a bit of a hard time deciding which vehicle to trade in. Considering how stubborn we both are, it's bound to be fun times! I'm sure that NO arguing will take place. Definitely not. But we both agree that now that Christmas is over, we really need to get back hardcore on our budget and start throwing some money to savings. After cleaning out so much junk from the house, I don't think we really need to buy anything else anyway. Why do we collect so much stuff we don't need? It's ridiculous.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas. It's hard to believe that 2010 is only 2 days away. Nick and I have a few resolutions, which I doubt we'll stick with. Usually I am able to keep at least one, so we'll see how that goes. Happy New Year!

Doctors

Emma had her Upper GI yesterday at Vandy Children's Hospital. She did great, considering she couldn't eat for 4 hours before. Her test was at 10:10 and she usually eats at 8. I did wake her up a little before 6 to eat, so she wasn't starving. She got a little scared during the x-ray part, but she calmed down. She hated the barium so they had to give it to her in a syringe. I tried to tell them she wouldn't drink it...she is very picky about what she takes from a bottle. Only her formula. But they got enough in her to do the test. Fortunately, everything is where it should be and working normally. She actually refluxed during the test, so even though it can't technically diagnose Reflux, we came away with a pretty good indication that that's what she has. We're relieved that it's not anything more serious, and that for now we're managing it as well as we can. Emma was a super baby, and fell asleep right away in the car afterwards. We were able to eat at Olive Garden (and actually enjoy a semi-peaceful meal). Visiting the children's hospital is a very humbling experience. We are really really blessed to have a baby who is more or less perfectly healthy.

Yesterday afternoon we had Emma's 6 month well visit. She got a great report, and her height and weight are now measuring around the 50th percentile. We started off at the 25th, so she's growing. Her head circumference is still between the 90-95th. The doctor said that we are doing a great job, which is nice to hear, since we for the most part don't know what we're doing usually. Emma has eaten bananas for 3 days in a row now and seems to like them, with no reaction. It's fun introducing foods to her. Today we're starting sweet peas. I tried her on homemade ones a while back, and it didn't go well. I bought some and am hoping they work better. I couldn't get enough of the skin off...at least, I'm hoping that was the problem.

Nick and I couldn't ask for a better baby. She is so happy almost all the time, and she's fun to be around. Nick took off yesterday, so he had a 3 day weekend to hang out with her. I think he saw why I love being home with her. She loves to laugh and play. We love her so much.

Our Week

This week has been interesting, to say the least. We finally had our long awaited appointment with the Pediatric Gastroenterologist yesterday. Emma picked this week to be sick and also be teething. I have never seen her so fussy. The bottle apparently hurts her gums, so she's not been wanting to eat her formula. She'll eat solids, but she's really hungry, and she needs more than just solids. I tried Baby Anbesol this morning, and she ate her bottle, but it usually gets worse as the day goes. I heard a lot of good things about Hyland's Teething Tablets, so we tried those. She broke out in a rash, so we're going to hold off on those for a while. I tried Humphrey's, which are the same as Hyland's but without the lactose, and she woke up with a rash this morning. For now, we'll just have to stick to the anbesol. The teething has been really hard for all of us. She's still been sleeping pretty well, but when she's awake, she's a holy terror. It's not her fault, but oh man.

I came away from our visit with the specialist a little disappointed. They're going to perform an Upper GI on Emma Monday, just to make sure she doesn't have any other problem. The nurse we saw was pretty confident that it was reflux though. She said that some babies grow out of it by their first birthday, but some severe cases remain until the child is 2. She gave us a new medicine to try instead of the Prevacid, which makes me a little nervous. There will be a period when the Prevacid is out of her system and before the Nexium begins to work, and she will get worse for a while. Also, she gave us some samples of Alimentum, a new formula for us to try. Pretty much though, there isn't anything they can do for the actual spitting up. Which is reassuring, but also frustrating. So we'll go Monday and assuming they don't find anything, we'll follow up with the nurse in a few months. The Upper GI is not an invasive procedure, which is good. But it's not until 10am, and we can't feed her that morning. She will one unhappy girl...and if her gums are still hurting, we will have one fun morning, for sure.

March of Dimes

We were fortunate in that Emma was born healthy and relatively on time (38 weeks, but not preterm). But I've been reading so many blogs of mothers and fathers whose children have been born way too early, most for reasons they don't know. Today is Prematurity Awareness Day. Report Cards were released, grading each of the states...and guess what? Kentucky scored an F on its Premature Birth Report Card. Here is a link to the report card. Overall, the US received a D. With all of our medical advances, shouldn't we be moving in a different direction?

Pictures

Finally, I'm posting pictures from Halloween. Also pics from the homecoming parade at WKU, and some random pictures.

Football

Emma will not grow up watching Coach Elson. It's a sad day for me (I might be the only one). I have good memories of him from 2002...I'm nothing if not loyal. Also, Brandy, Beth and I thought he was pretty cute in college. Obviously, cute is not enough to cut it as a football coach. This is a picture of Emma watching the press conference today. As you can tell, she was paying close attention to Dr. Selig. She has had to sit though several losing efforts this season, and was frustrated like the rest of us.

I have many pictures still on my camera that I need to post. Emma got to walk in the Homecoming Parade on Friday night. We got lots of compliments, and she behaved. Fortunately she was feeling better by Friday. She had either a cold or allergies for a few days last week. No fever, but since it only lasted a couple of days, I'm thinking it was probably a cold. She's back to her old self now. I introduced pears to her today. She seemed to really like them, but we'll see how her body reacts after a day or two. We've also been able to feed her some of the frozen breastmilk I stored, which I'm pretty happy about. She's still spitting up, but she doesn't seem to be in much pain or discomfort. Her gas has improved a lot! I don't know if the gripe water has anything to do with it, but we're definitely going to keep using it. She's closing in on 15 pounds, and will be 6 months old in 11 days. I've read that babies should double their birth weight by their 6 month birthday, and she has already passed that, so she's doing well. Tomorrow we are planning to take her to her first basketball game at WKU, so we'll see how that goes. I'm hoping to get a good pic of her with Big Red sometime this season!